Here we are in the third episode of Search for the Lost Giants, S01E03 “Chasing the Bones,” and the show is already revisiting past episodes, suggesting that this show’s format is more reality soap opera than anthology. By teasing out little bits of a single major investigation over the season, it hopes to keep the audience coming back for more details. I’m not sure, though, that selecting a two-foot tall tunnel system associated with no known giant reports is really the most compelling investigation to serve as the connecting tissue for the entire season.

We open with a quote from Flavius Josephus, identified only as a Roman historian—not, interestingly, as Jewish one. The line comes from the seventh book of Antiquities of the Jews (7.303 in modern numbering), not that you’d know it from the on-screen legend. In 7.12 of the famous Whiston translation, it goes “They had a man who was six cubits tall, and had on each of his feet and hands one more toe and finger than men naturally have.” But the show instead offers a more dramatic excerpt from 7.10 of Charles Clarke’s somewhat less literal translation: “In their army was a many of the gigantic race, being six cubits in height, and having six toes on each foot, and six fingers to each hand.” It is a reference to the events of 2 Samuel 21:20-21, where Jonathan kills one of the giants of Gath:

And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of David slew him.

The notes in the Loeb edition suggest that Josephus mistakenly applied the number of fingers and toes to the giant’s height. But whatever the reason, by identifying Josephus as a Roman, it provides spurious support for Bible giants from a seemingly unconnected source. We begin the episode with a recap of last week’s episode as the Vieira brothers explain their research to their team from S01E01, and the narrator tells us that we’ll be revisiting the pilot episode’s Goshen tunnel again. The brothers travel to the University of Massachusetts to convince archaeologist Eric Johnson to excavate the Goshen tunnel in search of a giant burial. Johnson doesn’t find enough evidence to make it worth excavating, so the team goes back to find more. They notice a “bizarre compass reading.” The guy from Ancient Aliens, Hugh Newman, thinks that the tomb is emitting magnetic energy because an ancient civilization sought out magnetic anomalies and earth energy to build their tombs. After the first break, Bill Vieira returns to convince Johnson to dig at the Goshen tunnel. To do so, they want to analyze the sand they extracted from what they think might be a hidden chamber in the tomb. Dr. Michael Jercinovic analyzes the sand. Meanwhile, we’re off to Rockingham, Vermont to look into old accounts that locals dug up a giant skeleton with a massive jawbone and two rows of teeth in 1849. Jim Vieira would like to connect the “giant” to petroglyphs showing round faces with “antenna-like projections,” which we might know better as horns. Older drawings suggest that some now-eroded faces resembled skulls. This trip was inspired by a secondhand passage from the 1907 History of the Town of Rockingham, Vermont by Lyman Simpson Hayes, which I happen to have here:

When the earth was removed from the top of the ledges east of the falls a remarkable human skeleton, unmistakably that of an Indian, was found. Those who saw it tell the writer the jaw bone was of such size that a large man could easily slip it over his face, and the teeth, which were all double, were perfect. It was supposed at the time, and is still so held, that this was the skeleton of the tall Indian chief named Philip, whom John Kilburn saw fall before his rifle during his noted fight August 17, 1755, a mile and a half further down the river. This skeleton was kept for many years deposited in the attic of a small building on the north side of the Square. This building was then occupied by Dr. John H. Wells' office and drug store, and stood where the Italian fruit store now does. When the building was rebuilt a decade or more ago the bones disappeared.A number of years after this skeleton was found a man travelling in New York state met an Indian who gave an account of the Kilburn fight in which his father took part. He stated that "Philip's body was carried to the Great Falls and buried under a flat rock that the white men might not discover it."

Note that Hayes never saw the bones, nor had anyone for more than a decade. Given the time period when the bones were found, and the fact that no one had seen it in decades, this account could represent anything from an actual man of above average height to the exaggeration of memory to the bones of a juvenile mastodon. But without a drawing or the bones themselves, there’s no way to know. I find it interesting that the show left out the 1755 date, all the better to make the bones seem mysteriously ancient. At the local library, Jim Vieira digs through archival documents, but since this is boring we cut back to Massachusetts. There, Jercinovic reports on his analysis of the sand, which he determines is made of quartz. Jercinovic can’t explain the presence of the beach sand at the Goshen site since the nearest beach is 100 miles away. The Vieira brothers think it was used as symbolic offering around a giant’s tomb, but my first thought is that since the Goshen tunnel has been probed, dug around, and disturbed for more than a century, it’s possible that some modern person tried to fill a hole with a bag of sand after digging, though it is not unprecedented for ancient people to bring exotic materials to construction sites. However, none of this implies anything about a giant being within any more than it implies that a denizen of Atlantis is there entombed. So, after the next break, we’re back in the Rockingham Public Library, where Vieira has discovered Hayes’s original notes for the History of Rockingham, which find that Hayes added the word “all” into his original draft in reference to the teeth, but Jim Vieira takes the edit for “emphasis.” The narrator breathlessly tells us that finding this skeleton would “shift our understanding of human history,” again confusing the possible existence of a tall person for a global race of genetically distinct giants. Another document, allegedly from 1886 (though clearly a computerized, retyped version), gives what seems to be the first report of the unearthing of the skeleton during the construction of a railroad. Jim Vieira wants to find a living descendant of the man who first examined the bones. Unfortunately, they’re all dead. So instead Vieira travels to the former home of the last descendant, but the homeowners have lived in the house for more than twenty years and know of no giant skeletons hidden in their longtime home. Vieira’s operating theory is that the Victorian doctor who worked with the bones passed the skeleton down to his descendants, who kept it hidden generation after generation for some obscure reason. Vieira tries probing a walled-off space in the basement and smashing his way through a patch in the foundation in the hope of uncovering a giant that seems unlikely to have been stored behind a patch in the wall that seems older than the last known report of the skeleton in the 1890s. But the homeowners now have a nice new hole in their basement wall! Vieira and the narrator imply that “men in black” or a conspiracy opened the wall, removed the skeleton that they only imagined had been present there based on a speculative fantasy and then patched the wall back up to keep future searchers from finding the truth. Back at Goshen, the brothers fill the tunnels with smoke to see if there is a hidden chamber by testing to see if the smoke will rise up from the hidden side-shaft, which they now are calling “the tomb of the giant” based entirely on wishful thinking. After the break, they sniff into a drill hole to try to detect even the faintest whiff of smoke. Nothing comes out of the drill hole, and the Vieira brothers are disappointed. But then begins emerging from a different location, near known tunnels. Finally, though, smoke comes up from drill hole, but the logic of concluding that a hole beneath ground equals the lost sepulcher of a Bible giant escapes me. Again, all they’ve found is a hole, without even a hint of a reason to suspect a giant lay buried within. Another UMass expert comes out to see the evidence, and after the final break archaeologist Stephen A. Mrozowski informs the brothers that the Goshen tunnel is not European. Does this include colonial American? I’m not sure. “This thing could be huge,” he says, adding that the site represented an astonishing level of sophistication. It sounds like he was trying to explain that he thought it was a Native American structure, similar to the stone cairns reported to have been built by Native peoples in the region, but some of this was edited out. Mrozowski agrees to excavate the site, which appears to be the through-line for the entire season, gradually teasing out the story of the tunnel—all the better to parallel the show’s model, Curse of Oak Island, and its limited location.

I can't bring myself to watch this nonsense - though somehow I can watch America Unearthed, Ghost Hunters and a bunch of other bunk, but I was actually really interested in the Oak Island program preceding the giants.

Its an obvious promotional piece for the "explorers" who are actually developing the island as a resort/tourist site, but at least they are not conspiracy theorists or religious zealots - until now.

Last night rather than looking for treasure, the Oak Island boys started looking for the holy grail and the arc of the covenant.

Can not the History networks do anything that does not relate back to biblical mythology?

I'm just waiting for the Car Count, the Ax Men, the Ice Truckers, and the Swamp people to go out giant hunting, or for someone to bring the he Pawn Stars the Arc of the Covenant, or the Pickers to find the remains of some Templars in an old garage in Kentucky

I thought the brothers on Oak Island were pretty good at dismissing the Solomon's Temple treasure stuff on the program. My bet is the producers found those guys and told the brothers to put them on the show. I love the fact that as the guy was presenting his "evidence" of the journey of the treasure to oak island one someone in the room was laughing non stop. After that first 15 minutes or so they were back to the heavy machinery and digging holes.

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John Dunham

11/19/2014 04:44:36 am

Agreed -

As I have commented before, these types of shows can be interesting, entertaining and educational without being crazy. There are real mysteries and mysterious places. they may have good explanations, but as Jason shows us the history of the mystery is often quite interesting.

Kal

11/19/2014 04:22:18 am

They've done it. They've found the entrance to One Eye'd Willie's treasure, in the wrong state! Begin digging. The pirate ship's gotta be there somewhere. (Goonies reference).

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Shane Sullivan

11/19/2014 07:16:30 am

I want to hear Jim Viera say, "it's our time down here!"

If only I could make it through a whole episode.

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Marius

11/19/2014 04:28:07 am

The hosts kinda seem to be legitimately mentally ill. Their thinking is extremely paranoid and self justifying.

Also, Cracked.com has an article that mentions ideas of Biblical Giants being in America, detailing how they were based on misidentified mammoth bones and straight up hoaxes.

that is great, I have never seen any of the Pirates movies but that makes perfect sense

Joseph Craven

11/19/2014 01:31:00 pm

The most depressing thing about the whole thing being that even on the page where these are unambiguously identified as movie props, there are still comments from people wondering if they're real mermaids.

Titus pullo

11/19/2014 10:57:07 am

Didn't see in search of giants but caught oak island. I love how the producers bring in these guys with crazy theories to eat up time since watching a drill is pretty boring. Marty is laughing his arse off at the whole thing. Maybe bring in parker enable from gold rush to dig for gold. The ultimate cross over..or todd hoffman who would fit right in to any history channel show.

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Matt Mc

11/19/2014 12:31:01 pm

one of the parts that cracked me up was when they said something like "well at least you are changing the narrative and not saying the templars where here" and then guy looked at them and said "Oh they where here looking for the treasure", the faces on the brothers was priceless.

I tried to watch the giants show but I lost interest real fast, those brothers are just downright annoying.

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FrankenNewYork

11/19/2014 01:23:50 pm

If they aren't going to use the ground penetrating radar on the tunnel they should keep it out of the shows about the tunnel. It just puts a hangs a big old lantern on the fact that they aren't ready to show what the tunnel is yet. As Jason said it, the tunnel is only a dramatic device at this point so they need to keep it active as a mystery more than they want to know if there is a chamber. Lame.

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James

3/8/2015 03:52:39 am

Your link to the 3rd program in series does not work. It takes you to a different episode. Did you delete this article? Wouldn't be surprised.

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Truth

11/20/2014 03:13:17 am

Damn man, good thing H2 has so many shows, how else would you find something to write about every week?

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Kal

11/20/2014 04:33:22 am

It's just Al Capone's safe or the Titanic safe from the 1980s all over again, a Jeraldo Rivera, where once they actually reveal what's there, it's nothing but soggy paper or rocks. The ratings would already be in because the suckers stoked about watching nothing already tuned in for over the 15 minute minimum to set off their Nielsen boxes.

"I’m not sure, though, that selecting a two-foot tall tunnel system associated with no known giant reports is really the most compelling investigation to serve as the connecting tissue for the entire season."

Maybe they should be looking into a secret pygmy civilization rather than giants. Goliath was unusual as an individual, and not the normal more frail hormone problem giant, I think they are looking in the wrong place, they should dig up the old anakim stronghold(s).

"Vieira’s operating theory is that the Victorian doctor who worked with the bones passed the skeleton down to his descendants, who kept it hidden generation after generation for some obscure reason."

A ridiculous idea, but a good excuse to get paid for a travelogue (which requires travel) and do some superficial interviews, bones like that dug up would have gone on the carnival circuit or into a museum somewhere or maybe ended up chopped up and put in potions, like mummies used to be in Egypt.

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EP

11/24/2014 04:56:22 am

A secret pygmy civilization would rule! :)

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Alberto Rodriguez

12/30/2014 12:53:57 pm

America is amazing! Where else would two dolt bricklayers without an education get a TV show to search for non-existent mythological creatures? Only in America, where ignorance and banality are virtues! Ask Jersey Shore Snooky!

Of course, banal, ignorant, deceiving, or not, they are laughing themselves all the way to the bank...like Barnum or Bernie would say: "there is a sucker born every minute."

I would like to see if at the end of this fairy tale, the brothers would be by the bedside of a giant disguised as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother, and when they ask him: "Grandma, why do you have two rows of teeth?" The giant will answer: "The better to eat both of you cretins!" LOL!

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rick

9/8/2015 09:49:06 pm

I would like to debunk the "only in America" claim. there are plenty of unscientific, unsophisticated, and outright ignorant people all across the world.

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Nathan

1/5/2015 01:03:43 am

I'm not sure why so many are finding it hard to believe in the existence of giants. Look up the following names. Robert Pershing Wadlow (USA), John F Carroll (USA), Leonid Stadnyk(Ukraine), Julius Koch(Germany). All of these people were over 8ft tall.....and there are many more (About 75 officially recorded). If these aren't considered giants, than what is? I think it is a great show

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Alberto Rodriguez

1/5/2015 02:23:46 am

No one is denying the existence in the past and presently of extremely tall Homo Sapiens, some over 8 feet tall, due to genetic and or glandular disorders such as thyroid, or because in isolated populations natural selection gave the advantage to taller, hardier individuals, as in the case of the indigenous Patagonians. The problem is the Viera brothers are making much ado about nothing concerning the variability within the Homo Sapiens genome, and ascribing such tall individuals to a "race" of giants distinct from Homo Sapiens. That is absurd.

At the expense of being politically incorrect, though accurate, there are probably greater genetic differences between Homo Sapiens of different races, than there are between an average sized individual and an 8 feet one of the same race and genetic background.

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.